Goodwill Store Searching For Family After Finding Purple Heart Medal In Donation Box
TUCSON, Ariz. (CBS Local) -- A Goodwill store in Arizona is looking for the owner of a Purple Heart medal that was found in the thrift store's donation box last month.
The medal engraved with the name "Nick D'Amelio, Jr." along with "S2C, USN."
D'Amelio was a seaman second class who served in the U.S. Navy and went missing in action when the USS Little sank in the Solomon Islands on September 5, 1942, during World War II, according to military records. He was awarded the Purple Heart -- given to U.S. service members who are wounded or killed in combat -- posthumously.
An associate sorting donations at a Goodwill store in Tuscon came across medal in a box of housewares. The store would like to return the medal to the veteran's family.
PLEASE HELP: @Goodwill is looking for the family of this American hero. Nick D'Amelio Jr.'s Purple Heart was donated to a store on Houghton and Golf Links in #Tucson in mid-June.
— KOLDNews (@KOLDNews) July 8, 2019
D'Amelio served in U.S. Navy. He went missing Sept. 5, 1942 and was declared dead a year later. pic.twitter.com/x6foyTcQL6
"It's important that we get it to the right family," Judith Roman Bucasas, director of marketing of Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, told CNN. "This guy didn't get to make it back home."
Roman Bucasas believes the medal was donated by accident. She's teamed up with Purple Hearts Reunited, a nonprofit that returns lost or stolen Purple Hearts and other military medals to veterans and their families, to help track down D'Amelio's family.
Military records show D'Amelio entered service in California but his family could be located in New York, Roman Bucasas said.
If you have information on D'Amelio's family, please call 520-623-5174, extension 7039.